The world is literally Milly Rockin’ on every block, including in video games. But Brooklyn-based rapper #2Milly isn’t here for people making a profit off his work without giving him his well-deserved credit and consent – which is why he’s taking the popular online game Fornite to the court.
In an interview with CBS News, he explained how he created the trendy dance, and how he recently found out Fornite has implemented the move in the game. “Everybody was like ‘Yo your dance is in the game,'” he said. “They actually sell the particular move. It’s for purchase. That’s when I was really like ‘Oh nah, this can’t go on too long.'” The company also changed the name from “Milly Rock” to the “Swipe It.”
The “Milly Rock” is 2 Milly’s dance move that grew popular when the rapper dropped his music video for his song “Milly Rock” four years ago where he is seen performing the dance. The dance came back on the scene in 2017 following the rapper #PlayboiCarti’s track “Magnolia.” Since then, social media users have created videos using the dance, which has been noticed by businesses such as Fortnite.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The rapper plans on taking legal action against the Epic Games-owned franchise, however there are no logistics on where his team is in the process. According to Intellectual Law, it is possible to copyright a dance, but not an individual dance move. The dance must have a series of movements that are arranged in a unique, original sequence in order to have copyright protection. One move is considered to be only one building block of an entire choreographed dance. An example would be songwriter trying to copyright a musical note instead of an entire song, which is a unique arrangement of notes.
Rappers like Chance The Rapper, have been outspoken about companies profiting off Black artists’ work. “Fortnight should put the actual rap songs behind the dances that make so much money as Emotes,” he stated on Twitter. “Black creatives created and popularized these dances but never monetized them. Imagine the money people are spending on these Emotes being shared with the artists that made them.”
